Pleasurable Expectations

s e v e n

I was lounging around the house in a dark pair of gray sweatpants, a white crop top, and my hair in a messy bun when I heard a knock on my door. I furrowed my brows as I picked up my remote and muted the TV, throwing the blanket settled over my legs off of me as well. I made my way to the door and opened it up, surprised to find my little brother standing on the doorstep.

"Darius? What are you doing here?" I hooked my hand around the back of his head and pulled him inside, shutting the door behind him. "Did Mama and Pops drop you off?"

"Nah, I walked here," he responded. He kicked his shoes off and laid them in the middle of the hallway before walking further into my place. I picked up his shoes as I followed after him.

"And why'd you do that?" I asked. I dropped his shoes next to the couch and retook my spot. Darius came and sat next to me. I took the blanket I was previously using and draped it over him.

"Because Jevon was being an annoying little bitch, so I left."

"Jevon's fifteen years old and you're his younger brother. Of course he's gonna be annoying."

"Yeah, but he kept jumping in front of the screen and turning off the Xbox and hitting me on my head," he elaborated.

"Of course it's 'cause of that damn game," I muttered to myself. I told Darius to hold on a second as I went into the kitchen and rummaged through the cabinet before finding a sleek yellow bag. I re-entered the living room and tossed the bag onto his lap, glee overwhelming his face as he realized what I hurled at him.

"You bought me Funyuns?" He ripped the clip off the bag and stuck his hand in, a handful of the onion-flavored O's following his arm out.

"You not special enough to warrant your own bag of Funyuns," I told him with a snort. "That's my emergency bag whenever one of you come over crying about how y'all annoying each other."

If there's one thing my brothers have in common, it's their love of Funyuns. They always used to ask Mama for a bag whenever they would have huge gaming tournaments. So, when they all got to the age where they wanted to walk their asses over here and complain to me about how Trayvion did this or Donte did that, I invested in a Funyun stash to keep them quiet until I could convince them to go home.

I love my brothers to death, but my home is my sanctuary. I finally escaped the arguments of prepubescent boys, where I could focus on my work and pig out whenever I felt I needed to.

Darius munched on his Funyuns with a close-lipped smile on his face as I grabbed clothes from the dryer and transferred them to a basket. As I made my way back towards Darius to ask him when, exactly, he planned on going back home, a knock rang through the apartment.

"That might be Jevon coming to beat me up," Darius announced as he heard me making my way to the door.

"Darius, what did you say?" I moved the basket full of clothes onto my hip.

"I texted him saying that he's a bitch." I heard the munch of one of the O's crunching against his teeth.

"Why y'all always gotta provoke each other?" I asked no one in particular as I raised my free arm up, letting it slap back down to my side. "Jevon, if you came over here to beat your brother's ass..." I trailed off as I opened the door, surprised to find Jeremiah at my door rather than my kid brother. "Well, you're not Jevon."

"I don't know who Jevon is, so no, I am not," Jeremiah responded.

"He's my kid brother." I waved a hand nonchalantly in front of my face before gesturing for him to enter. "What brings you around?" I asked as I lead him to the living room.